Nervous orthorexia – a so-called mental illness of those who eat healthy

<> “Orthorexia can be treated with beer and pizza!”

It is the “perfect remedy” for those who invented this orthorexia nervosa disease, and I wrote about it more extensively in this article on www.vivanatura.ro
It seems that those who want to convince the world’s population that to go back to nature, to eat organic, are increasingly fierce in convincing through “so-called legal means” that eating healthy is an obsessive disease.

Those who invented this disease say that: “Healthy eating, transformed into fanaticism, gives rise to a disease specific to developed countries: orthorexia nervosa. The fear of gaining weight has developed in many people an exaggerated concern for the quality of the food ingested. It is not about bulimia or anorexia. Orthorexia can even trigger depression, leading to isolation or disregard for friends. Remedy? A drastic treatment based on beer and pizza.” http://medlive.hotnews.ro/

At first glance this seems like a joke from those circulating on the Internet, but if we think that there are serious efforts in this regard because among the community of psychiatrists serious efotruri are made for orthorexia to be declared an eating disorder, and from here to legislating that this would be a dangerous condition is only a step …

The American Steven Bratman, specialist in alternative medicine and physicist, was the first to offer a definition for this eating disorder, himself declaring himself an orthorexic. The name of this disease comes from the Greek words “orthos” (right) and “orexis” (appetite).

How is orthorexia diagnosed?

Bratman asks in his book, “Health Food Junkies”, ten questions that he says he helps the doctor to diagnose an orthorexia, and if at least 4 questions are answered affirmatively then you suffer from nervous orthorexia:

1. Do you spend more than 3 hours a day thinking about what healthy eating means?
2. Do you always plan the day in advance what you will eat tomorrow?
3. Do you like the idea of eating more than the satisfaction you get from eating food?
4. Have you found that as the quality of your diet increases. increased, the quality of your life. Has it diminished?
5. Have you been stricter in your food choices?
6. Have you sacrificed things that you once enjoyed in order to feed yourself in a way that you think is right?
7. Do you have an increased sense of self-esteem when eating healthy foods? Do you consider inferior those who do not eat healthily?
8. Do you feel guilty and disgusted by yourself when you don’t follow the diet?
9. Your diet isolate you socially?
10. When you eat what you set out to do, do you feel at peace and have a feeling of total control?

After these questions a man can be labeled as mentally ill, because this is where he tries to “fit in” this condition.
In this case we really have a problem, because studies and research are being done in this regard !

Manipulation is attempted by shifting the attention away from the unhealthy diet that is seen on the younger generations – teenagers and overweight children – young children full of cellulite!

I do not remember to have heard until 5 years ago of morbid obesity in Romania and unfortunately this scourge has “conquered” us too.

What if we counter the two “affections” on which we really have to devote our attention?
This rhetorical question is kind of bitter, but…

We also bring to your attention the efforts that are being made to start research studies against orthorexia: “According to the British Dietetic Association, the disease affects especially those over 30 years of age, with medium and high level of instruction, in developed countries. Orthorexia registers a higher incidence among men according to a study published in the specialized journal “Comprehensive Psychiatry”.

According to the Eurobarometer conducted by the European Food Safety Authority, conducted in 2010, it was found that 47% of Romanians (37%, the European average) have a fear of the food they consume, considering that it makes them sick. The percentage of people who worry about what they eat is even higher than that of people who fear car accidents (34%) or who are afraid to be victims of a crime (19%). The same study indicates that 24% of Romanians check the number of calories and nutrients of the food they eat. ”

One can still formulate another question – are people affected by obesity healthier, do they mentally have no complex (leaving aside the physical ailments that most of them suffer from), the productive yield of an obese is better than that of one who has a normal weight?

More information about orthorexia can be read on the official website of dr. Bratman: http://www.orthorexia.com/